Bulletin Board

Posted: Tuesday, December 12, 2000

The gender battle continues in West Virginia where Donna Underwood says she is as good a Santa as any man, especially those male Santas working at the mall that fired her after a mall manager complained about having a female Santa. According to the Associated Press, Underwood, 50, has filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against SantaPlus of St. Peters, Mo., the firm that hired her to portray Santa at the Crossroads Mall in Beckley, W.Va. "The mall said they couldn't have a female Santa," Underwood said last week. "They said mythically Santa was a man." Underwood also said her portrayal of Santa is superior to the current crop of Santas at the mall. She said those male Santas are too young and they don't act like Santa. "They don't have a good ho, ho, ho," she said.

"In the faces of men and women I see God." - Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

Almanac: On this day in 1792, 22-year-old Ludwig Von Beethoven received his first music lesson from composer Franz Joseph Haydn.